At a glance
The Board of Education met Monday evening for committee reports, a personnel executive session, and Superintendent Todd Hilgendorff's report ahead of the new school year. Facilities updates covered the pool reopening, roof and HVAC work, and the auditorium renovation. The board has four letters of interest for its vacant seat, due by September 11. Hilgendorff walked through several staffing moves, including two recalls of previously laid-off employees, to explain community questions about which positions are being filled.
Roll Call and Agenda
The board opened with the pledge of allegiance, roll call, and approval of the agenda.
Key points
- Present: Mark DePace, Amanda Grubler, Diana Howard, Matthew Mackerer, Lou Zapp, and Michael Zibella
- The board voted to accept the agenda as presented
Facilities Committee: Pool, Roofs, and the Auditorium
The facilities committee reported on the pool repair, several capital projects, and a rental policy review, while the audit committee said the annual external audit is on schedule.
Key points
- The pool was drained and cleaned for minor repairs; a broken swim-lane eyebolt was found while refilling it, requiring another partial drain to fix
- The district hopes to reopen the pool by September 1, depending on the boiler installation; new piping for one heating option has already been installed
- LED lighting upgrades are complete at both schools, and a new rooftop unit for the main office is on order
- Four roofs at the '97 wing' have been stripped, with two of four reshingled; completion is expected around September 10
- One modular storage building near the turf field has been demolished; a second, near the softball field, was expected to be demolished within a day or two
- The auditorium demolition is planned for October; new seats are in production and the committee is still choosing aisle lighting options
- The clock tower project ('MCS clock tower') is complete and fully functional, and elementary school cooler and freezer upgrades, including a new epoxy floor, are finished
- The committee wants to review the school facilities rental policy, last updated in June 2020, over concerns the rates are too low
- There is no update on the outdoor classroom project; a Smart Schools grant addendum is coming to the board after a vendor provided pricing, with implementation hoped for by May
- The committee's September meeting is cancelled; it meets next on October 19
The transcript refers to the "MCS clock tower" without explaining what MCS stands for.
Finance and Policy Committees
The finance committee has not yet met this cycle. The policy committee is still setting its meeting schedule and flagged a need to revisit the district's attendance policy this fall.
Key points
- The finance committee has not met and will schedule a meeting, likely alongside the policy committee
- The policy committee is still deciding whether it will meet the first or third Tuesday of the month
- The attendance policy was readopted in July as-is, but members said it needs revision this fall to close a gap between the written policy and actual practice, with more input from staff
- The board discussed recruiting new community members to serve on the policy committee, noting at least two open seats
Board Vacancy: Four Letters of Interest
The board has received four letters of interest in its vacant seat, with a September 11 deadline for anyone else interested.
Key points
- The board currently has four letters of interest for its open seat
- Anyone else interested must submit a letter, following the posted guidelines and questions, by 5:00 PM on September 11
- The board planned a retreat the next afternoon to discuss communication goals and its presentation schedule for the year
- Further public discussion of the vacancy is expected at the September 15 meeting
This is the seat Maureen Sheridan resigned in July; last week's issue reported the same September 11 deadline for letters of interest.
Executive Session and Personnel Votes
The board entered executive session to discuss personnel matters and collective bargaining, then returned to approve a superintendent appointment authority resolution and personnel agenda items.
Key points
- The board entered executive session at 6:10 PM to discuss the employment history of a particular person or persons and contract negotiations with a collective bargaining unit
- The board exited executive session at 6:24 PM
- The board approved a resolution granting the superintendent authority to appoint
- The board approved personnel agenda items A1-6 and B1-15
- The board separately approved personnel agenda item B16; one member recused themselves from that vote without stating why on the record
The transcript jumps from 16:52 to 30:45, the roughly 14 minutes the board was in executive session. This is expected, not a missing part of the public record.
Superintendent's Report: Communications and Staffing
Superintendent Todd Hilgendorff previewed the start of the school year, an "ask the superintendent" community Q&A, and walked through several staffing changes to answer questions about which positions are being filled.
Key points
- Faculty and staff return September 8, students return September 9
- Communications specialist Daniela has been posting an "ask the superintendent" campaign on social media; roughly 30 questions came in, and Hilgendorff is recording answers by theme, with the first posted this week
- A communication on updates to the code of conduct goes to faculty and staff by the end of this week, with a version for families before school starts
- The district is building a website page to track capital project, energy performance contract, and Smart Schools work with monthly updates
- A social worker resigned; rather than reposting that role, the district posted for a school psychologist instead, allowing it to recall a psychologist previously laid off
- An English Language Learner (ELL) teaching position that had been reduced in the spring was restored to meet required services for this year's students, recalling another previously laid-off employee
- A separate ELL posting covers a leave vacancy, not a permanent position
- Asked whether the district had reached out to people on the recall list, Hilgendorff said yes, and some had already accepted positions in other districts
Consent Agenda and Public Forum
The board sorted out a mislabeled consent agenda item for a food service personnel contract, then approved the consent agenda. No one signed up for either public forum.
Key points
- A motion to add a food service personnel contract to the consent agenda ran into confusion over which letter the item should be (Y, X, or M) before it was resolved
- The board approved the consent agenda, items A through X
- No members of the public signed up to speak at either public comment period
Upcoming Meetings and a Second Executive Session
The board confirmed its fall meeting schedule and entered a second executive session to close the meeting.
Key points
- No facilities committee meeting in September; the policy committee's September date is still to be determined
- Regular Board of Education meetings are set for September 15 (6 PM, high school auditorium) and October 20 (6 PM, high school library)
- The facilities committee meets next October 19 at 5:30 PM in the district conference room
- The board entered a second executive session at 6:34 PM to review the employment history of a particular person or persons, with no further public business afterward
About this page
FUTURE HUDSON is an experiment in civic engagement: every public meeting of the City of Hudson since January 2026, transcribed and made readable, so any resident can follow what the city is deciding without attending every meeting. This page covers one meeting; see the full archive.
How it was made
The meeting video was transcribed automatically; the transcript was then organized into sections and summarized. The raw transcript is above, every claim can be checked against it.
What to be skeptical of
The transcript is automated and contains speech-recognition errors; names and numbers may be wrong. This page has not been reviewed by a human. Nothing here is an official record, the school district's official minutes are authoritative.
About coverage of this body
Board of Education meetings are livestreamed by the Hudson City School District to its own YouTube channel. The school district is a separate government from the City of Hudson. If a meeting is missing from the archive, the recording was likely not posted. See the archive index for the full coverage note.